Sunday Runday: Jingle Bell Run Race Recap

It's that time of year again, one of my favorite hallmarks of the holiday season - The Jingle Bell Run!  This is my fourth year running this race. Although running is a bit of stretch, for the past 2 years I've been walking the race with the rest of the family.  I love it as a family activity, even though I think I get more out of it than the other participants who complain about being tired and hungry the entire 3.1 miles.

But I can't help it.  I love the community atmosphere.  I love the costumes.

And I love the family atmosphere after the race.  Since one of the sponsors is Sprouts, this is probably the best post-race spread you can get.  There were bagels, doughnuts, coffee cake, chips, oranges, bananas, and after you collect, they hand you a reuseable shopping bag filled with popcorn and kind bars.  And the drink situation has the typical water and coffee, but also hot chocolate and apple cider.

There's also a beer garden with the San Diego classic, Stone beer.  I told Thatboy we take it for granted that this is our typical race beer as opposed to the Miller Lite or Michelob Ultra that is often handed out at non-San Diego races.

 Since most of the kids aren't hanging out in the beer garden, I love that The Jingle Bell Run has a host of kids activities for them.  Thatbaby is old enough where I thought he would enjoy the 1k Reindeer Dash.  And he kind of did, but he was a little tired from the 5k.  He shed his early morning fleece for his spiderman shirt underneath and seemed to have a burst of speed anytime a spectator yelled "go Spiderman!" at him.


Afterwards we headed over to the kid's tent where there was airplane and truck building as well as cookie decorating.

I really do love this race.  For me it is the perfect way to usher in the holiday season.  Even if it's less of a run and more of a morning out with the family.